Tony Cummings reports on the Denver-based radical worship ensemble the MICHAEL GUNGOR BAND

The Michael Gungor Band

One of the most musically adventurous and lyrically radical worship albums of recent years is the 'Ancient Skies' album by the Michael Gungor Band. And as it turns out, Michael is an adventurous spirit who has consciously wrenched himself free from the worrying trend within the Church that turns worship leaders of high profile churches into product-shifting personalities. Today Michael is involved in a church plant in inner city Denver. Michael is outspoken in his views of the worship leader as personality cult as demonstrated when he spoke on Mike Rimmer's Rimmerama programme.

"In our culture celebrity is so worshipped that the stage in churches becomes a mini 'if I can't be famous on television maybe I can get a little recognition here at church'. So some people use the stage selfishly and sometimes I kind of resent the stage at church, I hate that we have stages. I know sometimes it's a practical situation but the worship is always supposed to be about God and his people and the worship leader is just there to help the people worship, that's all we're there for. As soon as it becomes this giant stage with the giant screens - not that that is necessarily inherently wrong but I think it can lead to bad things. I think every worship leader needs to be careful that they're not finding identity in that, that they are not finding security and belonging by some sort of status within the church that elevates you above other people."

Recruited at just 20 years old to oversee the worship ministry at Grand Rapids mega church Resurrection Life. Michael was very much in the public eye. He was also an accomplished songwriter, co-penning the popular worship song "Friend Of God" with award-winning worship leader Israel Houghton which landed in the Top 20 CCLi worship song chart. After a six-year tenure at Resurrection Life and two solo projects with Vertical Records, Michael began to feel a divine discontent. "I had got to the point where I felt I was some kind of figure, I didn't feel like a normal human being, living as the church, it felt like it had become more like an industry or business. So I thought 'let's just move somewhere we want to live and figure out what it means to be the church.' So we moved to Denver. We have mountains here and it's a nice place to live. My wife and I started an outreach event called Bloom. We didn't know a single person in Denver but this one girl that we had met and she came over to our apartment and we started praying together. That's how Bloom started. It's been going for a year and still feels like a group of friends trying to be the church but it's grown into several house churches and now the house churches get together Sunday nights at a little theatre in downtown Denver."

The Michael Gungor Band were formed with Michael (vocals, guitar), his wife Lisa (keys, vocals) and Brad Waller (drums). Explained Michael, "Mostly there are three of us that are kind of 'the main, always-there band'. We kind of rotate the other guys."

In 2007 the Michael Gungor Band released an independent album, 'All I Need Is Here'. It was a radical project. He said at the time of the album's release, "If our worship isn't somehow connected with hurting people, if us singing about surrendering to God doesn't result in people having clean water to drink, or if we disconnect our worship to become something disembodied, then we've missed the point."

Such a perspective is reflected in such songs as "White Man" ("we've often lost focus on God by creating our own images of him") and "Giving It All", inspired by a conversation Michael had with a former addict working at a homeless shelter. "I wanted to write a song for guys like him, a song for those of us who acknowledge that we can't do it by ourselves. This song is a cry of surrender from desperate, broken humanity searching for just a drop of something real."

Such was the quality of 'All I Need Is Here' that in due course it was picked up by a label and released - in an amended form - nationally under the title 'Ancient Skies'. Intriguingly though, the label who released it, Atlanta's Brash Records, weren't a "Christian company". Explained Michael, "We were talking to some Christian labels but I just liked the guys at Brash. Our music, especially this new record, I'm actually calling it now 'liturgical post-rock', doesn't really fit into the mould of praise and worship. It is kind of misleading for what this album is; 'liturgical post-rock' seems more accurate to me. We just wanted to go with a label that might not have pre-conceived ideas of what we're trying to do."

The title song for 'Ancient Skies' comes from a re-working of Psalm 68. Commented Michael, "I saw this verse in Psalm 68, it goes, 'Sing to him who rides the ancient skies.' It kind of painted the picture to me of man - when we worship, we're joining something that is so much bigger and deeper than even what is just happening right here, right now; we're part of this giant eternal symphony that the universe is offering, that is saying 'God is holy and worthy'. So this is a song that hopefully helps us soar with creation."

Now the band have recorded a new album, 'Beautiful Things', which hopefully will be released in October. Michael was asked whether this too would have a radical edge. "I don't ever want to be radical or controversial for the sake of being radical and controversial but I think the message of Jesus always does have some edge to it. The people who got offended by Jesus' message were the religious people. If what we're saying is okay with everyone we might be skipping out on some things. Jesus wasn't always safe and positive and friendly for the whole family. People got offended because Jesus' message cuts some of the things that we hold dear. So if I feel some things need to be said I don't want to be afraid to say them."